By Morris Aron
The tall lanky frame of Prof Terry Ryan is un-mistakeable as his level of intelligence on economics.
He is wearing huge brown spectacles and a woollen coat, and carries a big brown leather bag full of statistics — some are notes dating back to the 60s, which could take ages to feed into a computer.
And he carries the bag wherever he goes, except maybe to church.
"Name them, I have taught them. Some members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) are my grandchildren. It is funny that I taught those who taught them and we now we share a table," says Ryan.
Let us put this into perspective: Prof Njuguna Ndung’u — Governor of Central Bank, Joseph Kinyua — Permanent Secretary Ministry of Finance, Micah Cheserem — chair of the Capital Markets Authority, Dr Patrick Njoroge — the senior most Kenyan at the international Monetary Fund, several chief executives in banking institutions and the list is endless.
But from this rich list, it is Finance PS Kinyua who has stuck on his memory. "The young man was highly intelligent," says Ryan.
Ryan was in charge of the Department of Post-graduate studies at the University of Nairobi from 1966 to 1983, where he taught "Pure Economics", a compulsory unit for any student hoping to obtain a degree.
A Kenyan by birth, Ryan was born in Nakuru and grew up on a farm in Molo.
He worked as a shamba boy on his father’s farm earning a couple of shillings a month.
He then went to St Andrews Turi before proceeding to St Mary’s when it was still located in Parklands. From there, he went to a secondary in Australia before going to a university in Ireland, where he studied Economics and Political Science.
From there, it was straight to the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he completed his PhD in a record two and a half years!
Ryan, who has sat on the MPC — that advises the governor on policy issues — for several years, is a chair of the Strathmore University council.
He was the brainchild of the process of economic liberalisation in the country — deregulation of price, interest rate and exchange rates controls.
Many economists see price control, common in the developing countries before the 90s, as a disincentive to development, as it kills competition.
As a director of planning, Ryan saw to it that Kenya put in place mechanisms to abolish price controls, and leave pricing to market forces.
Price control
Almost everything sold was priced at what the Government said, from basic foodstuff to oil to machinery.
"I thought it was crazy. So, between 1983 to 1995, I slowly embarked on a journey to liberalise the market," he says.
As young civil servants — Ryan and Harry Mule, a former Treasury PS and Chancellor of Kenyatta University — would eat rice days to end as it was the only thing they could afford.
To his credit is a sessional paper on economic management, he presented in 1986 — that is currently being implemented with the banking reforms and devolved funds.
As a member of the Catholic Opus Dei, he is still a bachelor. His only elder brother, a farmer — moved to Australia some years back, after his farm was bought by the Government.
Despite his immense knowledge, Ryan does not own a mobile phone.
"I handle technology as a servant not as a slave," he says.
To contact him, you need to check on him at the Central bank office or at his house.
"Otherwise, just leave a message."
But where does he see the Kenyan economy headed?
"One thing is clear. After every General Election in the country, there is a banking crisis," he says smiling.
Overall, however, he says reforms going on in the country’s social, economic and political circles, will see the economy take-off at levels never witnessed before.
Ryan says the creation of an East African Community and removal of all barriers to development will usher in growth in leaps and bounds.
On a bad day, Ryan undertakes to race walk. So what was the most outragious thing he did during his campus days?
Together with a friend, he published an article in the Irish Geographical Journal on how one can be able to dive into a cave that leads to a passage under the sea, and emerge on the other side of the divide, raising interesting debate on diving skills.
As a principle he lives with the motto: "If you can’t tolerate failure, you are a failure."
—maron@eastandard.net
